


Yes, it was on purpose

by imperfekti



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 01:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6218647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfekti/pseuds/imperfekti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuji asks for Shiraishi's help with a little something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yes, it was on purpose

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Plant Trio shipping week](http://tenipurishippingweeks.tumblr.com/post/139564148039/plant-trio-week) on Tumblr in 2016. The world needs more ShiraFuji, so here's my first contribution!
> 
> Special thanks go to my beta-reader for finding my silly mistakes and offering helpful commentary. <3

The light in the bedroom was still on when Shiraishi finally finished studying for the day and turned in after a quick shower. Wearing only a pair of boxers and the slippers on his feet, he was still drying his hair with a towel when he stepped inside the small room. He found Fuji on the bed, lying on his stomach under a blanket, apparently studying something in front of him in deep concentration.

”Hey”, Shiraishi said as he sat down on the unoccupied edge of the bed, only then getting his boyfriend’s attention. ”Were you waiting for me? Sorry I took so long.”

Turning his head to look at him, Fuji granted him a soft, somewhat unfocused smile.

”Oh, that's okay. Did you finish reading everything you meant to?”

”Yeah, for now.” Shiraishi yawned. Medical school was tough sometimes, especially when tests were due. ”Gotta get up early tomorrow to continue though.”

”I see. You worked hard today.” Fuji reached his hand out to touch his lower back in a supportive gesture, and Shiraishi welcomed the contact by placing his hand on Fuji's arm, covered in a white pajama.

”Tried, at least”, he replied with a laugh. ”What about you, did you end up studying until now?”

Fuji's smile took on a slight twist, already telling Shiraishi the answer was a definite no. Sometimes he envied the lighter workload Fuji seemed to have with his studies of art history, though maybe it was just Fuji himself being naturally good at assimilating everything with such ease that he made it seem easier than it was on average.

”Well, I stopped a while ago.” As he answered, Fuji started drawing capricious patterns on the bare skin of Shiraishi's back. ”But actually, I ran into a problem just now and was hoping you might still have the energy to help me with that tonight.”

Shiraishi raised an eyebrow. ”Oh?”

He threw the towel from around his neck onto a nearby chair, kicked off the slippers and raised his legs on the bed, moving to sit closer to the boy below the blanket. He was tired, for sure, but maybe not that tired after all.

Moving his hand to touch Fuji's neck and hair, he asked with a lower voice. ”So, what kind of help did you have in mind?”

Shiraishi held Fuji's half-lidded gaze for a while, before the blue eyes lowered to sweep over his body, now bare except for the boxers.

”Well...” Fuji said, slowly, sending butterflies aflight in Shiraishi's stomach, his imagination quickly offering him all kinds of pleasing scenarios, all starting with Fuji getting at least as undressed as he was himself.

Just as Shiraishi was about to help his boyfriend with that, the young man drew his hand away from Shiraishi and placed it on whatever he had been studying just now, something Shiraishi had pretty much ignored until now.

Fuji took the pieces of thin cardboard lying on the bed in his hands and held them up to show them to Shiraishi, his smile still not quite innocent.

”You remember Yukimura's birthday is coming up, right? So which do you think would make a better choice of a picture for his card this year: an ume or a witch-hazel?”

Shiraishi stared for a moment. Fuji stared back, patiently waiting for a reaction.

Shiraishi never won these contests.

”Oh man”, he exhaled, dropping himself back first on the bed. ”You totally did that on purpose.”

”Did what?”

It was almost annoying how genuine Fuji could make that sound on surface. Almost.

Shiraishi dug up his pillow from under the blanket and propped his head on it before reaching for the cards that Fuji was holding in his hands.

”So, ume or witch-hazel, then?”

From the corner of his eye, Shiraishi could see the more mischievous edge of Fuji smile turning softer again as he handed the cards to Shiraishi and moved closed, turning to lie on his side right next to Shiraishi. He wrapped an arm over Shiraishi's bare stomach.

”Yes. I've sent a card with a picture of a plant every year now since befriending him, and I'd like to stick to that tradition.”

Fuji was referring back to their time in that tennis camp years back, where the three of them had a shared a room together. After the experience, having had the chance to get to know each other better, Shiraishi and Fuji had found their feelings going deeper than friendship, and after dating for a while had now lived together for a couple of years when his university studies had brought Shiraishi to Tokyo.

They were both still friends with Yukimura, though not living in the same city with him did limit their time together these days.

Putting aside his momentary frustration with not getting what he expected just now, Shiraishi studied the two cards with distinctly dissimilar flowers. He knew both from before, but the weird looking one with yellow flowers was a lot less familiar.

”What's your thinking behind these ones?”

”Well, for the witch-hazel, there's the colour. Last time I saw him he was feeling pretty nostalgic about his team in junior high, so I thought it might be a nice reference. I think he's been painting something with those colours as well, since we went to do some shopping for materials last time.”

Fuji paused for a while, but continued when Shiraishi turned his head slightly to glance at him.

”And it's quite special, right? You don't see it every time, I was surprised to even find this card.”

Shiraishi smiled at him, a little amused both at his boyfriend's unusual tastes and his habit of always checking the selection when they went to botanical gardens and other such places. Maybe preparing for these kind of occasions was one reason why.

”And the ume?”

”Well, they're always beautiful, and it's been a good season for them this year, hasn't it?” Fuji had taken Shiraishi along for walks through some parks while he photographed the pale pink and white flowers. ”And I thought maybe going for something more traditional couldn't hurt every once in awhile, though I wonder if he might get a similar thing from someone else.”

Shiraishi flipped the card over, looking for a name of the manufacturer yet didn't find one.

”But knowing you, it's not a chain-store find though, right?”

”It's from Oedo antique market.”

”Which I doubt others close to him will be shopping at for stuff like this. What's wrong with the witch-hazel, then?”

Fuji had obviously already thought it through.

”It's not seasonal at all. If it was the _japonica_ it would be okay, but this subspecies flowers in the autumn, you know.”

”Oh, right.” Shiraishi considered it for a while, searching his memory about the species. ”Aren't these things supposed to have some health benefits to them?”

”That's one thing I'm thinking about”, Fuji said and nudged his chin against Shiraishi's shoulder. ”It could be a nice thing, like saying 'hope you stay well', but it could be too... medical.”

”Well, if you were asking anyone else on my class, for example, that connotation would definitely not be on the top of their mind”, Shiraishi said with a chuckle. He himself was a lot more open to that kind of thing, using more gentle and natural options to treat minor health issues when one had the choice, earning him a (still mostly unfounded) reputation as the CTM-nerd of the class.

But knowing Fuji, and knowing Yukimura, they had a bit of a different look on such things. Probably not exactly the same look, between the two of them, but still.

”I think I get what you mean though. Might summon ideas that you don't want to summon.”

Fuji nodded, not saying any more.

Yukimura had been in good health lately and kept doing well with his tennis career without any problems that they knew of, but still the subject of his well-being was something on the back of their mind sometimes.

Shiraishi felt like the boy lying there against him already knew where his choice was leaning, but went on to do what had been asked of him.

”So we have the one you think is interesting and speaks to some of his recent moods, but is unseasonable and might be inappropriate. And then there's the one that is pretty and seasonable, kind of different from your usual choice but you worry it's boring.”

”Do you think it's boring?”

Shiraishi set the cards on the night table before turning on his side to face Fuji, wrapping an arm around him as he smiled.

”Not sure if I'm the right person to be judging, but I know no-one's going to think _you're_ boring.”

Fuji smiled a little at that, catching Shiraishi's eyes with his own.

”So the one with ume is better for this occasion after all?”

”You can always send him something crazy next year”, Shiraishi offered, in an attempt to make Fuji laugh, and smiled again when he succeeded.

”I never go for 'crazy' on purpose.”

”So you say, but sometimes I wonder.”

Shiraishi earned a light shove from Fuji for that one.

Having that settled, Shiraishi got up enough to lift the blanket so he could finally be closer to Fuji. With the blanket out of the way, he could now properly feel the thin waist under his hand when he put his hand on him and pulled the boy close to himself. Fuji hugged him, his soft hair and cheek comfortably against Shiraishi's chest.

While petting his back and looking over the chestnut hair pressed against him, Shiraishi saw another pile of cards on top of the night table on Fuji's side of the bed. How many had he gone over before presenting the final two to him?

He squeezed the young man in his arms a bit.

”You put in a lot of thought for Yukimura here.”

”Well, he's a friend.”

”I'm sure he'll appreciate the card when he gets it.”

”I might ask for your opinion again tomorrow for the text.”

Shiraishi's laugh came out a bit unsure, despite himself - he had barely made it out alive a couple of months back when Fuji had been writing New Year's cards and wanted to come up with individual seasonal phrases for something like ten people and he had been made to help with refining them.

As he was about to resign to his fate and promise to put aside some time for it tomorrow – it was time away from sleep, with all the tests he had coming up - Fuji suddenly put a little distance between them, sliding the tips of his fingers first from Shiraishi's back to his side, eventually stopping on his abs. When Shiraishi lowered his eyes, Fuji was looking up at him with clear eyes. One side of his mouth was just slightly tugging upwards.

”Though I wonder, maybe there was something else you wanted to help me with instead.”

The butterflies from before made their comeback pretty damn quickly.

It seemed like one way or the other, Fuji was going to keep Shiraishi awake through the next night or two.

**Author's Note:**

> Some references:
> 
> TCM = [traditional Chinese medicine.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine)
> 
> [Witch-hazel.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hazel)
> 
> [Ume.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_mume)


End file.
